JohnnySins

Wow that looks unreal for a 2 cut with an FUT. I'm hoping I can look like that with a 2 cut... Congrats again man, looking forward to your full results!

Looks amazing man! how short did you cut your sides/back where your scar is? I believe I can barely see the scar in the photo of the back of your head, but it looks great. Your scar healed really well.

4 month pics look really good man, only gets better from here!

Yeah, I think if anything, I will do an FUE procedure on my whole strip, that way it'll blend in nicely and I'll be able to cut my hair shorter.

Thank you man! Yeah, The pre-op photo does bear a striking resemblance, albeit under significantly lower lighting conditions. All my post-op photos have been taken with a bright ring light to effectively showcase whether the scalp is visible through the hair. Anticipating further growth in the coming months!🤞

MONTH 4 UPDATE HOLY CRAP, I HAVE HAIR! Man was I ever starting to freak out that I would never come back from losing my native hair during my shock loss, but boy was I wrong. The difference between month 3 and 4 has been insane. I can't belive I already have this much hair at month 4. I was expecting this result at maybe the 6 month mark. My crown is finally filling in and my mid scalp area is much fuller now. I'm hoping it only gets better from here. The only drawback, if I may say so, is the FUT scar in one particular spot on my head (as indicated by the circle). It appears that the scar stretched enough to create a noticeable area where my scalp is visible. Fortunately, the rest of the scar seems inconspicuous for now. I'll only be able to gauge its visibility with a haircut – determining how low I can go without it being noticeable.

I would say my shock loss hit a little over the one month mark. I'm currently at the four month mark and everything has definitely grown back at this point (and more). It can take longer then 4 months for shock loss to recover, so I wouldn't freak out about it! I've been on finasteride (1.25mg) for a couple of years now.

Amazing results so far man! Dr. Laorwong is putting out some amazing work.

I have to agree with @Needhelpwithscar the day before surgery I was told I would be a better candidate for FUT than FUE as I would have more grafts available with the FUT method. I fully went in with the anticipation of having an FUE procedure, so I asked Dr. Wong for photos of what FUT scars looked like fully healed and when he showed me a couple of them, I thought they looked amazing and barely noticeable and that's why I went ahead with the FUT.

Depending on how it turns out, I may get an FUE procedure to get it filled in. Some people are extremely lucky when it comes to their scar lines not stretching from the looks of it and they're barely noticeable. When I asked Dr. Wong what a typical scar line looked like healed, they looked great and barely noticeable. I'm not sure what happened in my case, but I will wait for it to heal 100% before contacting the clinic. I guess we each have our own classification of "severe diffuse thinning" but I think I did. This photo shows just my crown area dry (a week before surgery) where it looks visibly thin and can easily see the scalp. Someone without diffuse thinning wouldn't look like this with dry hair. This wasn't even in direct sunlight, if it was taken outside in natural light, it would have shown the true extent of it. At the end of the day, I know some people have more severe cases of diffuse thinning, but to me, this has always been troublesome and what I consider diffuse thinning. Thank you for your wishes, I'm hoping for the best in terms of results 🤞

Finally hit the 3 month mark and thank God I have some of my native hair growing back after the shock loss. It doesn't look fully recovered from the shock loss, but hoping within the next couple of months I'll get there. Overall things look much better from month 1 and even had a chance to get a haircut at month 2. My scar finally feels less sensitive and has become less red. I think my scar line did stretch slightly, which I will have to look into further when the scar fully heals and I can take some photos to review. \

So funny to see how similar our stories/ hair procedures are! I'm basically at the 2-month mark and well below baseline (kind of freaking out) but hoping it's just temporary shock loss of my non-transplanted hair. Wishing you all the best on your journey!

Looks amazing man! Wishing you all the best on your journey!

Well, I've finally hit the 1-month mark. The shed has been insane, I'm kind of freaking out a bit, since I am well below baseline. I definitely have lost native hair along with all my transplanted hair. I've never seen my scalp like this before, I would assume this is due to shock loss. The scar area looks way better than I thought for the 1-month mark. I'm really trusting the process of this and hoping for the best.🤞

When I grew out my hair longer, the crown was awfully visible because of how thin my hair was in that area. I told Dr.Wong I wanted as much density as possible and wanted this to be a one-and-done surgery. I assume that's why he took that approach. I consulted with 3 other clinics with the same photos: Dr.Bicer who suggested 1800-2200 grafts, Vera Clinic suggested 1850-2250 grafts, and Dr.Rahal suggested 1500-2500. All the clinics suggested more or less the same amount of grafts when seeing the photos provided. I will never know if they would have suggested more if they saw me in person.

DAY 13 PHOTOS

Appreciate your responses Melvin. This is why I posted a picture of my hair wet, to show how thin my hair actually was. Once my hair was dry, it had volume and appeared to cover my scalp well, but it didn't. I assume it's because I have "coarse hair" as per Dr. Wong, which probably made the appearance that I had great coverage when I really didn't.

DAY 7 PHOTOS

I guess time will tell if the grafts transected with the existing hairs. I trusted his approach, especially with how many years of experience he has been doing this. I don't think any medication other than what I was taking already (Finasteride and Topical Min) would have brought my hair to my desired density.

I really hope so! I did use topical minoxidil since 2021 and it made no difference to my hair. Oral minoxidil is hard to come by in my country, as there has been a shortage since 2022 and no pharmacy carries it. I even attempted derma rolling with topical min for 8 months to see if that would have made a difference with the topical min and it never did. Finasteride was the only thing that provided a difference. Very true, I've been taking fin for many years and topical min. I thought about going on DUT, but decided against it. I tried the dermarolling approach with min as well, but got no results from that. I just didn't want to waste more time trying different things and if they didn't work out, I would have regretted not getting a transplant sooner. Appreciate the wishes 🙏

Hey @mrmajified I was just as surprised also. I think it was because I told Dr. Wong that I wanted as much density as possible and my crown to be filled in. He suggested 4000-4500 would be a perfect number to get my desired density, but they ended up getting 4986 grafts, which I was more than happy with. Hoping to get my desired look with this many grafts 🤞 All the best in your journey as well, it looks great so far.

After over a year of lurking through this site and seeing everyone’s results from various doctors, I finally built up the courage to start my own hair transplant journey. BACKGROUND A little background on myself: I turned 30 this year and have been experiencing hair loss since I was about 21 years old (that’s the age I started to take notice of it and document it). I am a diffuse thinner and hated that I could see my scalp, always wishing my hair had better density. As the problem only got worse, I decided to do something about it. In 2019, my family doctor prescribed me Finasteride, and while hesitant (due to the side effects), I decided to jump on it. After a year on Fin, I could certainly see a change. And while it did make a difference, I was still not 100% satisfied with the results. I could still see through to my scalp and my crown was very visible- this was one thing I really wanted to thicken up. Fast forward to 2021 when I began my topical minoxidil journey. I can confidently say that I completely regret starting topical minoxidil, as it hasn’t made any difference to my hair growth. Besides providing no additional results, I also know if I stop it, I will probably lose a lot of hair. There’s also the complete hassle of applying the foam every night, going to bed with it, and rinsing it off in the morning. Such. A. Pain. Enter my transplant decision! I knew Fin. and Minoxidil could only do so much. So, after extensive research, keeping myself updated with everyone’s posts/results on here, and stalking Reddit, I took matters into my own hands. I ultimately made the decision to jump on a plane and visit Dr. Wong from Hasson and Wong for my own surgery. MY DECISION In my initial emails, I spoke with James from H&W, and he answered all my questions and any concerns that I had. From the pictures I sent, I explained how I only wanted the crown and front area done, as those were the areas I was most self-conscious about. James suggested that the best approach, from what he could see and what I explained virtually, would be an FUE with 1800-2000 grafts total (1000 in the frontal and 500-800 in the crown). These were some of the photos I sent below to H&W where they made that analysis of how many grafts I would have needed. My hair looked like it had great coverage in the middle/front, but because I always had long hair it covered up the scalp when my hair was dry. I decided to book my surgery for June of 2023 and begin my journey to a new luscious head of hair. However, after an unexpected event popped up in June (that I couldn’t miss), I had to change my appointment in April (I was lucky that they could fit me into the only date they had available before the end of the year). My new transplant date was August 16, 2023. I also booked a pre-op consultation with Dr. Wong for August 15th (and thank goodness I did!). About 3 weeks before my appointment, I decided that I wanted to shave down my head shorter than I usually do, to take some photos of how it looked short. I was shocked to see how thin my hair was overall. I guess it was worse than I initially thought, as I’ve always kept my hair long. As soon as I saw the true state of my hair, I realized I was going to need way more than I originally presumed. I immediately sent an email to the clinic expressing my concerns regarding what was first discussed. As I knew I would need more grafts to get my desired outcome, I reached out to ask if during my in-person consultation, we decided on upping the graft count, would that be possible. Thankfully H&W assured me that Dr. Wong would take a look and if we did decide to go heftier on the graft count after our discussion, that there was room that day to do any of the extra work that I required. Pictures right after my haircut 3 weeks post-op: <--- Dry Hair <--- Wet hair SURGERY I arrived on August 15th in Vancouver for my pre-op appointment with Dr. Wong. After a discussion regarding my goals and expectations (and now concerns after shaving my head) and physically observing my hair, he let me know that in order to achieve the results that I wanted, we would have to do an FUT instead of the original FUE. To be honest, that shocked me as I wasn’t expecting an FUT going into this. He explained that due to how thin my hair is and how he would only be able to acquire about 3000 donor grafts from an FUE, the only option to achieving the results I wanted from the transplant (with the additional areas completed and maximum density) would be with an FUT. As he is the professional and knew what was best, I agreed and booked myself in for the FUT instead. Luckily, they were able to alter my surgery last minute and accommodate me. At this point, I went from being extremely excited to super nervous. After a year of preparing myself for an FUE, I had one day to prep myself for an FUT and the scar that went along with it. I should mention Dr. Wong did state that in the future if I wanted to cover the scar, (if it started to bother me) we could apply grafts to cover it up. I didn’t know this was possible, so I’m glad to hear that it is an option! Photos from the clinic right before my procedure: 6:00 a.m. I arrived at the clinic for my FUT surgery on August 16th. I was welcomed by H&W’s friendly staff, took pre-op pictures, asked some last-minute questions, and was given 2 pills to calm me before surgery. The entire procedure took about 12 hours from start to finish. From what I read on some people's posts; they complained that Dr. Wong wasn’t involved in the process as much as they thought he would be. From my experience, it was the complete opposite. Dr. Wong was present and involved in my surgery way more than I expected. He was the one who did the initial anesthetic, he made the FUT strip cut, stapled the scar, and made all the holes for the donor grafts. Dr. Wong also popped in a lot throughout the day to check in and ensure everything looked perfect. He and his team were truly impeccable! One of his technicians has been a part of his team for over 20 years, and she stated that working there felt like a family. It was great to conversate with his team and have a couple of laughs with them. They made the entire experience personable, and you could tell that they enjoyed working there- that it’s not just a job. Photos from the clinic right after my procedure: After my surgery, I felt pretty good- but I was still numb… so take that “pretty good” with a grain of salt. I tried to champ it out and not take the prescribed Tylenol 3’s and I quickly regretted it. The first night I slept in hour increments, as sleeping with a giant scar on the back of your head is NOT easy. The next morning, I went back to the clinic for a hair wash and scalp check. Unfortunately, when I left the clinic and got out of my Uber back at the hotel, a strong gust of wind took my hat off, and on instinct, I slapped it down and hit my grafted area. It absolutely burned for the rest of the day, but luckily nothing started to bleed- so no grafts were damaged (this was also confirmed by Dr. Wong the following day). On days 2,3,4 and 5, I visited the clinic for scalp checks (days 4 and 5 were on the weekend when the clinic was realistically closed, but I was still seen during the off hours). Dr. Wong personally checked my scalp every single time I went in and made sure my grafts and donor area looked top-notch and that I was healing nicely. All in all, my scar is the only area giving me any discomfort. It’s now 2 weeks post op and I still have a hard time sleeping on it. It took a few nights and several different pillow positions to find comfort, but once I did, I slept like a baby, but I still awake in pain from time to time. I look forward to sharing my upcoming journey with you all. I will be posting updated pictures periodically to show the progress I’m experiencing. I’m honestly anxious to see how this turns out as I’m really hoping for the best results possible. Overall, the only downfall of Hasson & Wong is the high cost compared to clinics outside of North America. But fortunately, financially I’m lucky enough that cost wasn’t a deciding factor for me. I’d much rather know I’m going to someone with extensive experience and a great reputation. If you have any questions regarding my experience, please feel free to ask me 🙂 I want to give back to the community by posting my journey and hopefully inspire someone else who is on the fence about getting a hair transplant, as this forum really helped me take a chance on my own transformation. I'll be posting as much as I can as I go.

That is what I'm most nervous about and how I'm gonna sleep elevated for a week after surgery. I have surgery with Dr.Wong on the 16th and I've got a pre-op on the 15th, so we might bump into each other! I know it can be nerve-racking, but it won't hurt as much as we think. I'm just looking forward to the hair gains.